Social Psychology: Introduction
Chapter 1
Outline
• Social Psychology: definition
• Social Psychology : Scientific Nature
• Social psychology and other disciplines
• Understand Causes of Social Behavior and
Thought
• Research methods
Social Psychology Is Scientific in Nature
• Accuracy: A commitment to gathering and evaluating information
about the world (including social behavior and thought) in as
careful and precise manner as possible.
• Objectivity: A commitment to obtaining and evaluating such
information in a manner that is as free from bias as humanly
possible.
• Skepticism: A commitment to accepting findings as accurate only to
the extent they have been verified over and over again.
• Open-mindedness: A commitment to changing one’s views —
even views that are strongly held—if existing evidence suggests that
these views are inaccurate
Social Psychology Seeks to Understand the Causes
of Social Behavior and Thought
5. Biological factors:
The biological factors influence our social
behavior. They can be understood as
physiological factors and neurological factors
(E.g., neurotransmitters) genetic factors
(inheritance), and evolutionary factors.
Research Methods
The most basic research design, , is research that involves making
observations of behavior and recording those observations in an objective
manner (e.g., by comparing the behaviors of older versus younger children in
a playground).
In a correlational design. For instance, many researchers have tested the
research hypothesis that a positive correlation exists between the use of
violent video games and the incidence of aggressive behavior, such that
people who play violent video games more frequently would also display
more aggressive behavior.
